Initiate
Artificial Gravity
How to Colonize an Asteroid
Initiate
Artificial Gravity
You may have see, or tried, the classic experiment where you rapidly swing a bucket filled with water upside down over your head, and the water stays in the bucket. This same principle, called "centrifugal force", can be used to create "artificial gravity" inside the hollowed out asteroid by spinning it at a rate of approximately one revolution per minute.
The asteroid can be spun through the use of chemical rocket engines, linear induction engines (mass drivers), or possibly through the use of screw shaped solar sails positioned along the axis of the asteroid. It should be noted that thermo-nuclear devices could also work, but the danger of residual radiation is much too high for this technique to be viable.
During initial selection of an asteroid for the colony, special attention must be paid to the structural integrity of the asteroid. Are there internal fractures which will cause the asteroid to shatter or crack or shatter when it is spun? Will we need (or even be able) to construct some kind of wire net or mesh to hold the asteroid together?
Data on the internal structure of an asteroid can be fairly easily procured through the use of sonar from the surface. This can be done by probes even before the colonists leave earth.
See the section on colony custruction for more information.
